RIP, Dan O'Bannon

This clip from an early movie of his has always been a favorite of mine, because the whole movie 'Dark Star' was shot on a budget of about... um... pocket lint. But anyway, it's a favorite scene because without any money, it uses classic cameraman tricks of Dutch tilts and forced camera perspective, plus some hammy but heartfelt acting by a guy laying on a floor and a forklift tine, to make you think this is a real elevator shaft...

...and not just a forklift with $3 worth of broken kid toys glued to it, driving down a hallway. I think it works well, much better than it should, considering what they spent. That's always impressed me.

Yes, that's Dan in the clip as Sgt. Pinback; after this semi-student indy film, he went on to write a little movie about an Alien that gets aboard a space ship, you may have heard of it ;-)

Indeed . And a film that rewards with every screening. Saw it when very young on TV and like early Carpenter are much better 'how to' examples of low budget 'indie' filmmaking than many of those being touted today.